Eco-House: Creating a Space for Eco-Arts Education

The beginnings of Eco-House were formed through conversations I had with undergraduate students enrolled in Elizabeth Sutton’s art history course “Art, Ecology, and Empire” in the fall of 2015. The discussions always began with great enthusiasm for the content, and then turned towards the depressing reality of what that content meant for the future of our planet. Significantly, the students also understood the surprising closeness of issues presented in class—extractavism, water quality and availability, animal exploitation, and Native American displacement and colonialism—on their own lives and the local ecology of the Cedar Valley. I heard passion, anger, and frustration in these students’ voices. After speaking with Elizabeth, the idea of a studio extension of her course seemed a logical and proactive outgrowth for the students to address their frustrations through art